The Legend of Tyoga Weathersby (28 page)

When Walks Alone stepped up to Sunlei, his eyes betrayed a knowing that at once puzzled and yet fortified her fragile resolve. He held her close and whispered in her ear, “ Eh ya to hey-yo.
(He is very near.)
Et ta se gee.
(He is watching.)
Eh ya net yaho.”

She grasped the sleeves of his shirt and held him away from her for just the slightest moment.

He kissed her hurriedly on the cheek, turned, and walked away with a stride that was anything but that of the conquered.

Nine Moons took his daughter into his arms as he had done a thousand times before. Her head fit under his chin. He gazed off into the distance. “When you were but my baby girl, we would sit together beside our lodge fire long into the night. We would speak of many things,” he softly whispered into his daughter’s ear.

“Yes, Adoda. I remember,” Sunlei replied.

“One of your favorite stories was that of the firefly,” he continued. “Do you remember?”

Sunlei smiled.

“Aukawak, the firefly glows in the night hoping to attract the perfect mate. Flying over the calm, cool waters of Silver Shore pond, she flashes and flashes her beautiful light, hoping to find a mate with the biggest and brightest light of all. After many hours of searching for the one firefly whose light equals the brilliance of her own, she sees on the opposite shore the most glorious flashing firefly she has ever seen. The brightness of the light is illuminating the darkness of the night, and she is certain that he is calling her name. She flies toward him, and his light is getting closer to her. It seems as though they have found one another.”

“But he never makes it across the pond to her,” Sunlei interrupted him.

“That’s right, Little One. The light that he cast was also seen by the pond’s biggest fish. He became a meal before he could become a husband. They would have had many beautiful babies.”

Nine Moons stopped as he felt his daughter begin to shake with the effort to stay strong. He kissed her on the top of her head and continued.

“Do you remember the lesson of the story’s ending, my Little One?” he asked.

“Yes, Father,” she said. “Aukawak’s light does not go out at the loss of her chosen one. She continues to glow until she finds another. Her light never goes out.”

Nine Moons stepped away from his daughter and held her shoulders in his strong hands. “Be strong, my daughter. Never let your light go out. Glow brightly. Remember me.”

He took two steps back to allow True Moon to approach her daughter.

She cupped Sunlei’s face in her trembling hands and looked helplessly into her sad eyes. Managing a little smile, she said, “You are the light of my life. My body sustained your life and my heart beats within you forever. We can never be apart, my little one. Remember what I have taught you. We will see each other again someday.”

True Moon turned to Seven Arrows and said, “Be kind to her.”

He nodded once.

As the final group of well-wishers disappeard on the trail leading back to Tuckareegee, Seven Arrows reached out and roughly grabbedSunlei’s shoulder to turn her toward the trail to South Fork. “Eh ya,” he commanded when she turned and followed.

The Shawnee had already packed their belongings in preparation for the trek home. They had only to throw their packs over their shoulders to be on their way.

Seven Arrow stopped at a large pack filled with his own belongings. He looked at it, and then at Sunlei.

Pointing to the bundles her people had carried from the village for her to take with her, Sunlei said, “My things. Who will carry my belongings?”

With no change of expression, Seven Arrows raised his hand and struck Sunlei across the face.

She fell to the ground and turned away covering her cheek with her hand. She had never been struck before in anger. More than the pain of the blow, it was the feeling of shame and worthlessness that accompanied the strike.

How was it that I have done nothing wrong, and yet it is me who bears the shame of being struck?

Though it was his hand that had committed the assault, it was she who would bear the mark of fault and disobedience. It was not the pain of the blow that brought a tear to her eye, but the injustice and entrapment that left no recourse or hope.

She wiped away the tear not wanting him to see, and got to her feet.

“Your trinkets mean nothing to me, and you will have no use for them as a Shawnee squaw,” Seven Arrows barked. “You will learn to cook in
our
ways, prepare hides in
our
ways, dress in
our
ways, and obey in
our
ways.”

He walked over to his large and cumbersome pack and pointed to it.

Sunlei walked over, stooped down, and struggled to lift the heavy pack onto her back.

As Seven Arrows walked away into the woods, he kicked over the bundle in which the chinaware given to Sunlie by Emma Weathersby had been lovingly packed.

She closed her eyes when she realized that the shattering china represented so much more than the loss of ornate place settings. It was the shattering of the hope for an entire nation of people. It was the destruction of dreams and promise and possibilities. It was the crumbling of peace and the collapse of a culture thousands of years in the making.

As she kneeled on the ground, struggling to get an arm through the leather shoulder strap to hoist her burden onto her back, she gazed back up at the outcropping where Tyoga’s camp had been. In utter desperation and total despair, she screamed into the shadows, “Tyoga! Help me! Please. Help me!”

Seven Arrows turned around, hurried to where she was squatting on the ground and lifted her to her feet by her hair. Laughing derisively, he spat into her face, “Your wolf-man is not here. He has abandoned you like the rest. You are mine now. All mine.” He raised his hand as if to strike her again, but was satisfied at her cringing and holding up an arm to block the threatened blow.

One last time, she turned her head to look up at the mountainside where Tyoga’s camp had been.

With her right eye swelling and the other filled with tears, she was not able to discern the silver grey outline of the Commander framed by the granite majesty of the outcropping. He was standing stone still with his eyes riveted upon her every move. He watched her struggle to stand under the weight of her enormous burden. He saw her snatch a small leather pouch containing a few of her personal items from one of the bundles strewn on the ground. He observed her staggering behind the band of Shawnee braves as they led the way to South Fork. He watched her melt away into the woods.

So did he.

Chapter 31

Coarsened Cowardice

S
even Arrows decided not to take the route over the mountains through Cormack’s Pass to get to the Shawnee village at South Fork. Although he was fairly certain that the unspoken threat of annihilation was enough to keep the Ani-Unwiya from trying to rescue Sunlei, he was wary of an ambush by Cherokee Braves who did not agree with their chief’s decision to allow her to be taken without a fight. It was what he would have done. Always the schemer and enabler of misfortune to suit his needs or advance his standing, he trusted no one because no one could place their faith or trust in him.

He was disappointed that Tyoga had not been present when the Cherokee turned Sunlei over to him, but he reveled in the fact that he had beaten Tyoga so summarily that he had left the Appalachians with his tail tucked between his legs.

Still, he was suspicious and cautious.

He had been alone with him when Tyoga’s eyes drained of humanity and the blood-tinged amber hue infused them with the darkness of the beast. More than any other, he recognized that Tyoga was more than a man and capable of near magical feats of courage and strength.

He had run away like a frightened child from his encounter with Tyoga by the river when there were no witnesses to his cowardice. He could not allow a repeat of the incident when other eyes were upon him.

Following the rivers and streams that snaked through the valleys and lowlands of Appalachia, he took the long way back to the village. Because of their late start, it would take them an extra day to reach South Fork. They would have to camp for two nights along the trail.

Sunlei was strong and her powerful legs had carried her hundreds of miles along the Appalachian trails while following in the footsteps of Tyoga and Tes Qua. But she had never been burdened by the enormous weight that Seven Arrows had strapped to her back. Her back ached and her thigh muscles quaked under the strain of the goods that hung from her shoulders.

There was no wooden frame to which the goods were secured and the absence of even a waist sash to transfer the weight from her shoulders to her legs caused the straps to dig deep raw gouges into the flesh of her soft round shoulders.

“Halewista
(Stop)
!” she cried out when they rounded a bend in the stream. “Da gi yo we ga
(I’m tired)
, and I am thirsty.” She crumpled to the ground.

Seven Arrows called out to his men, “Keep moving. We’ll catch up.”

As his men moved out of sight along the trail, Seven Arrows turned slowly and walked back to where Sunlei had collapsed to the ground in a heap. She did not see the cruel smile stretched across his wicked lips.

Seven Arrows preyed upon the weak and defenseless. Careful to always pick as his victims those too timid or frail to fight back, he had bullied his way through childhood and adolescence. Young girls and women were favorite targets.

As a young boy, he recognized his innate superiority as a matter of stature and brawn. As a young man, the sexual gratification realized as the result of his complete domination and mastery of his victims compelled him to more frequent—and more violent—encounters.

“So my little princess is tired?” he said with a coldness in his voice that she had never heard before. “Thirsty too?”

He took the water gourd off his shoulder, as if to give her a sip of water. When he removed the stopper, Sunlei reached out with her trembling open hand. Seven Arrows crouched on the ground before her, and raised the gourd to his lips. He took a long drink of water. Sunlei’s arm remained outstretched, certain that she would not be denied a sip of water. Seven Arrows raised the gourd to his lips again, took another long drink, and then spit what he did not swallow into her open hand.

Abruptly, he stood up, so close to her face that his knee nearly struck her cheek. He pushed her with his foot and barked, “Get up, you Cherokee dog. We have far to travel before we stop. You will learn to carry your burdens without complaint.” When Sunlei did not budge, nor look up at her tormentor, Seven Arrows squatted down and hissed into her ear, “You are a Shawnee squaw. You will obey. Do you understand?”

Sunlei wanted to cry, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her broken and weak. She licked the wetness from the palm of her hand before struggling to her feet. She raised herself to her knees, but as soon as she tried to plant a foot to push herself upright, she crumpled under the shifting weight of her heavy load.

Her efforts were not good enough for Seven Arrows. Her inability to get to her feet could one day shame him because the strength of man’s squaw reflected upon his own status as a powerful warrior in control of his woman.

He dropped to knees again and screamed into her face, “I said get up!”

Exhausted from her efforts, she remained motionless where she collapsed and did not try to rise again.

Seven Arrows stood up and removed the knife and tomahawk that he had tucked into a long, two inch wide leather strap that wrapped around his waist several times. Slowly, he walked behind Sunlei and carefully added the knife and tomahawk to the goods already weighing her down. Doubling over the leather strap and wrapping a loop around his wrist, he said in a viciously calm controlled voice, “I will begin your lessons in obedience now.”

The Shawnee braves hesitated only for a moment when they heard Sunlei’s horrific screams. Knowing exactly what was happening to her on the trail behind them, they smiled at each other.

Over and over again, they heard the snap of leather on flesh.

When they continued to hear Sunlei’s screams after walking ten minutes ahead on the trial, the smiles had long since left their faces.

Their exchanged glances conveyed something more.

The sun was beginning to set and the temperature was dropping fast, so the braves decided to make camp and wait for Seven Arrows and Sunlei to catch up. They stopped at a clearing surrounded by sugar maple and towering pines about thirty feet from the bank of the river.

The braves set to work on their campsite like members of a regimented team assigned specific tasks. Falling Bear and Sky Hawk collected stones to build a rock ring for a fire pit. Others collected firewood while Runs Too Long got a warm fire roaring in the pit. Several braves went fishing for their supper. Others spread out blankets and skins, and unpacked cooking utensils for the evening meal. Two Fox and Otter got to work constructing a makeshift lean-to for Seven Arrows and Sunlei. He would not be interested in waiting for a formal wedding ceremony to consummate the arrangement.

When Seven Arrows and Sunlei arrived in camp about a half an hour behind them, the men were taken aback at her appearance. The brutality of Seven Arrows’s attack was far more severe than even they had imagined. They looked at each other, and then at him, with a new found estimation. That he was capable of such merciless violence—and to a woman yoked by the burden of backpack and gear—placed Seven Arrows in a category of regard that coarsened cowardice. Two Fox looked away and walked into the woods.

Sunlei’s left eye was nearly swollen shut and the left side of her face was distorted with swelling and bruising. The back panel of her tunic was shredded, and the sticky dark stains of dried blood glued the leather to the open gashes on her back. The lashing had ripped open the flesh of her forearms and shoulders. Even her legs were covered with welts and bruises.